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Mired in a five-game slide and surrounded by negativity, the Winnipeg Jets got an injection of life, Friday -- from a man who's happy just to have one.

Defenceman Zach Redmond, who six weeks ago was flat on his back on the ice, the life draining out of him and forming a red circle where there shouldn't be one, got back to being a hockey player.

The sight of Redmond doing drills with injured teammates Jim Slater and Anthony Peluso was a little surreal, considering the last time they'd seen him prior to this week he was being rushed into an ambulance in Carolina after severing an artery in his thigh.

"It lifts everybody up," Peluso said. "To see him skating again is remarkable."

It's fitting Redmond's first skate was with Peluso, who rushed for a towel, got down on his knees in the blood and tried to squeeze shut the gash that was threatening his friend's life that day.

Redmond is doing something just as remarkable: healing faster than anybody dreamed.

"I didn't expect to be back this quick," the 24-year-old acknowledged. "As the recovery goes on I get better and better news."

The reason for the uncertainty: "Because it never happens," Redmond said.

What did happen remains burned in his brain.

Redmond was battling for position with Antti Miettinen around the net in practice, when he went down.

"I remember the whole thing," he said. "For some reason, it was kind of weird, I knew there was nowhere else for him to step. And so I was kind of looking at my leg, waiting for the skate to come down. I was pinched on the post, so I couldn't really go anywhere.

"I was waiting to see if there was blood, and it started coming. I remember looking at (Charlie) Huddy: 'You gotta get some help here.' "

He remembers assistant coach Perry Pearn taking his jacket off and tying it around his leg. He remembers trainer Lee Stubbs at his side, talking him through it.

And he remembers what he was thinking.

"The same thing, oddly enough, happened to my uncle," Redmond said. "Not quite as bad. And he got through it. That helped me a little bit.

"And, honestly, it sounds cliche, but just kind of praying. And hoping. Hoping the ambulance would get there sooner rather than later."

At that moment, his team had become much more.

"There were probably 15 guys around me," he said. "I'm just really fortunate for the coaches and players and everyone that jumped in. I'm convinced it saved my life."

The ambulance ride was the worst part.

"They put a real tourniquet on me. And when they started wrenching down on that thing, it was the most painful part."

When he awoke from surgery, doctors weren't telling him a lot.

But because the nerves were severed, everything below the cut was in jeopardy. Nobody was sure he'd have full control of his foot again.

"There was no way to know until he could move that foot around and see what was happening," Rob Milette, head therapist of the Jets, said.

Within days, he was moving it.

Six weeks later, he put a skate on it and looked remarkably like his old self.

But not before thanking a group of people that will never be just teammates again.

"I don't know what you did, but thanks for everything," Redmond told Peluso. "He's not going to take credit for much, I'm sure."

No, but he bought the coffee when Redmond first got back.

"I got out of the car, gave him a hug -- and we drove to Tim Horton's for a coffee," Peluso said. "I take care of everybody."

Redmond isn't likely to play unless the Jets survive into the playoffs, his promising rookie season likely over.

By the look on his face, Friday, he couldn't have been happier.

"After everything that happened," Redmond said. "It's more I feel lucky to be here, than unlucky to be hurt."